The Song of Solomon

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 7 -

Chorus to Groom: What will you see in the Sulamitess, other than choruses of encampments?(a)

(b)

Chorus to Bride: How beautiful are your footsteps in shoes, O daughter of a ruler! The joints of your thighs are like jewels, which have been fabricated by the hand of an artist.(c)

Your navel is a round bowl, never lacking in curvature. Your abdomen is like a bundle of wheat, surrounded with lilies.(d)

Longing

Your two breasts are like two young twin does.(e)

Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes like the fish ponds at Heshbon, which are at the entrance to the daughter of the multitude. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks out toward Damascus.(f)

(g)

Your head is like Carmel, and the hairs of your head are like the purple of the king, bound into pleats.(h)

Your love makes me happy

Most beloved one, how beautiful you are, and how graceful in delights!(i)

Your stature is comparable to the palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of grapes.(j)

Groom: I said, I will ascend to the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. And your breasts will be like clusters of grapes on the vine. And the fragrance of your mouth will be like apples.(k)

Bride: Your throat is like the finest wine: wine worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to contemplate.(l)

I am for my beloved, and his turning is to me.(m)

I want to give you my love

Approach, my beloved. Let us go out into the field; let us linger in the villages.(n)

Let us go up in the morning to the vineyards; let us see if the vineyard has flourished, if the flowers are ready to bear fruit, if the pomegranates have flourished. There I will give my breasts to you.(o) The mandrakes yield their fragrance. At our gates is every fruit. The new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for you.(p)

Footnotes

(a)7:1 The phrase ‘choros castrorum’ is obscure, with multiple possible meanings; the translation leaves it obscure, with multiple possible meanings. +The Christ sees things in His Bride, the Church, that the world does not see. The world sees a kind of army, groups of persons hostile to the sins of the world.(Conte)

(b)7:1 How beautiful are thy steps, etc:By these metaphors are signified the power and mission of the church in propagating the true faith.(Challoner)

(c)7:2 In a previous verse, the maidens asked the bride to return, so that they can meditate on her beauty. Now the maidens expresses their meditation on the beauty of the bride. This is not the groom speaking, because he has already extolled her in much the same words. The maidens ask the groom what else he sees in the bride, so that they can understand her even better. +The daughter of a ruler is the Church; also, it is the Virgin Mary. The ruler is God the Father. Notice that the Chorus, those newly seeking God in the Church, have now arrived at a similar understanding about the Church as that of the Groom (Christ). That is why this passage is the Chorus speaking; now they understand; before they did not understand. They are maturing in the Faith.(Conte)

(d)7:3 The word ‘tornatilis’ refers to something smoothed (perhaps on a lathe); the word ‘crater’ is not so much a crater as a bowl. The word ‘poculis’ can refer to a drink or to a cup, but in this context it refers to the curves of the bride’s abdomen. The word ‘navel’ is used to represent the exposed abdomen; the sentence is not about the navel itself. +The navel was considered to be the center of the body. The center of authority in the Church is and will be Rome; the center of worship in the Church is and will be Jerusalem.(Conte)

(e)7:4 See how the maidens now understand the beauty of the bride in a manner similar to the groom. They sought and achieved a deeper understanding of the bride. +Those who seek truth from the Church and the Christ will find that truth.(Conte)

(f)7:5 Cities are sometimes referred to as ‘daughters,’ especially if it is a city related to another larger city, or if it is a set of cities in the same area. The daughter of the multitude is probably a city. The maidens continue their discourse on the beauty of the bride, now that they have learned about her from the groom. The eyes are the entrance to the soul, which is profound, like a city with a multitude of peoples. +Those who are maturing in the Faith now express their newly-found understanding of the Church, repeating what they learned from Christ the groom, but also expressing these truths in new ways, according to their own new understanding.(Conte)

(g)7:5 Thy head is like Carmel:Christ, the invisible head of his church, is here signified.(Challoner)

(h)7:6 The word ‘purpura’ refers to cloth died with the most expensive dye of the time, a purple dye favored by kings and the most wealthy. The word ‘regis’ is in the genitive singular, so the translation is ‘the purple of the king.’ It is not the king who is bound (‘vincta’), but the purple cloth of a king, which is bound into ‘canalibus,’ i.e. pleats. A cloth bound into pleats resembles hair bound into tresses or braids. Her hair resembles the most precious cloth of a king, bound into pleats. +The newly mature in faith continue their discourse of the beauty of the Church, adding new insights to the Faith not previously understood even by those who have long been faithful.(Conte)

(i)7:7 The maidens know how greatly loved the bride is by the groom. The text does not say ‘my beloved,’ as if the groom were speaking. This is the chorus continuing to show that they now understand the bride, who before was a dark mystery to them. +Likewise, the newly mature in faith know how much the Church is loved by Christ, how beautiful she is in God’s eyes, and how graceful she is.(Conte)

(j)7:8 The maidens now compare her stature to the palm tree, whereas before the groom was compared to a palm tree. + The maidens understand that the bride, the Church, is holy because she is like the groom, the Christ. The stature of the Church is comparable to the stature of Christ.(Conte)

(k)7:9 Dates are a common type of fruit from a palm tree. Now the groom is speaking about the bride, since he speaks about her breasts and since the person speaking is first person singular. The transition from the maidens speaking to the groom speaking is indicated by the introductory phrase: ‘I said....’ +Both the Christ and the Church are compare to the palm tree, because the Church is the Body of Christ. The Christ says that He will ascend to the palm tree, i.e. that He will ascend to the Church in Heaven, and that its fruit, the Blessed in Heaven, will benefit the Church on earth.(Conte)

(l)7:10 She begins speaking directly to the groom, “Your throat,” then she continues speaking about him, but in the third person. This kind of compositional technique is common in Scripture. She calls him by the masculine ‘dilecto,’ so this is the bride speaking to the groom. +The Christ contemplates the wine of the Church: just as the fruit of the vine matures into wine, so also the Church not only bears fruit, but it brings that fruit to full maturity as wine, i.e. the holy lives of the Saints and martyrs.(Conte)

(m)7:11 The bride is devoted to the groom, who earlier in the poem she did not know as well, and as a result he turns toward her instead of fleeing from her. +The Church becomes fully mature in the Faith and fully dedicated to Christ, as a result He turns to her, revealing Himself even more fully than before.(Conte)

(n)7:12 The word ‘dilecto’ is in the masculine, so this is the bride still speaking. Notice that she switches back to speaking directly to him. +As the Church advances in holiness, the time for the Return of Christ approaches. In the years prior to the Return of Christ, some persons in the Church, the first fruits, will be so holy that although they will have original sin, they will have no personal sin whatsoever.(Conte)

(o)7:13 This is the bride speaking to the groom. Notice that she uses the first person plural, because now the two are more closely united than at the start of the Song. +The morning is a time of light for the world. Christ and His Church examine the vineyard of the world, and of the faithful in the world, to see what fruit it has born.(Conte)

(p)7:14 The bride is now ready to be married to the groom; she rejoices in their impending marriage. +The Church is now ready for the Return of Christ. She has preserved the old, the teachings of Tradition and Scripture, and she has achieved new insights into those teachings and new Saints who follow those teachings.(Conte)